


Self Care

by ExtraSteps



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cuddles, Hot Chocolate, Liam's got more important things to focus on, M/M, Pre Relationship, bubble baths and showers, comfy clothes, mentions of Theo's past, we practice self care in this house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExtraSteps/pseuds/ExtraSteps
Summary: Theo stumbles in on Liam's self-care routine. Liam decides he needs some of the same treatment.
Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Comments: 4
Kudos: 185





	Self Care

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my good friend Autumn for your encouragement and ideas <3

Liam doesn’t even bother opening his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” He mutters. What a waste of time, asking such a stupid question. Anyone with two working eyes in their head can see what’s going on.

The silence stretches on, almost long enough for him to actually open his eyes and look. They are just starting to twitch a bit when Theo speaks again.

“To be honest, it looks like you’ve gone insane,” he says frankly.

Liam frowns, sliding a little further down into the bath, disturbing his enormous nest of bubbles. His face mask has dried enough that frowning makes it crack slightly. He feels a flake or two peel away, just like the last of his composure. “It’s called self care, asshole. I had a very long, very trying day, and now I’m relaxing.”

Theo scoffs. “You don’t look very relaxed.” 

At this, he finally opens his eyes. He glares up at Theo. “I was up until 30 seconds ago when some judgemental prick barged into my bathroom.” 

Theo has the grace to look mildly embarrassed and says nothing. He looks a bit like a lost puppy who's just been smacked on the nose, shoulders hunching in on themselves. A twinge of guilt bubbles up in Liam’s chest. 

He sighs. “What are you even doing here, Theo?”

Theo just shrugs, but his eyes dart towards the shower. Liam regards him thoughtfully. He’s known for awhile now that Theo sneaks into his house to use the bathroom and laundry. He has his suspicions on why, but he’s been waiting for Theo to broach the topic. The last thing he wants is to spook him. If Theo ran for the hills, Liam knows he’ll never find him again.

It surprises him that Theo willingly came into the house while Liam was home. The visits normally happen when he’s at school and his parents are at work. Theo always cleans up after himself, but there’s not much he can do about the way his scent lingers in the air.

He chews on his lip, wondering how to proceed.

“I don’t mind, you know,” he says, voice carefully neutral. Theo blinks, looking startled, eyes searching his face with no small amount of incredulity.

“What?”

Liam tilts his head towards the shower. “That you come in and use stuff. It’s fine, really.”

Theo looks mortified, and Liam frowns again. Surely Theo realises that Liam would notice him sneaking in?

He sits up, and this time the wave of water sloshes up high enough to put out his candle. Liam sighs. Earlier he nearly burned his fingers lighting the bloody thing; he can’t be bothered relighting it.

When he looks at Theo, it’s to find a strange look on his face. Liam frowns again, following his gaze down. There’s some bubbles clinging to their hair on his chest and he smoothes a hand down them, giving a bemused smile. He’s probably just laughing at him or something.

This time when he looks back at Theo, it’s to find him staring up at the ceiling. Liam follows his gaze again, but can’t see anything of interest. Just a few cracks in the paint.

What a weirdo.

The silence has dragged on long enough now that it’s awkward. There’s some tension in the air, and Liam scratches at his chin. He feels a bit vulnerable like this, truth be told. No one was meant to be home until almost dinner time, and he’d been planning on soaking until his fingers and toes were wrinkled up prunes. Theo being here has put a bit of a spanner in the works.

Should he get out? He doesn’t really want to, but now he has a guest. His mother would definitely make him get out if she were here, and he sighs again. He can hear her nagging in his ear and he reaches for the plug, pulling it out.

“What are you doing?” Theo asks again, but this time his voice is high and strangled. He’s gaping at him. 

Liam rolls his eyes. Again with the dumb questions.

“Getting out,” he says. “Can’t really sit in here any longer with you here, can I? It’s rude.”

Theo’s eyes drop and then dart away again, cheeks tinting slightly. Liam studies him, trying to figure out why Theo is acting so strangely. He’s never known him to be so jumpy.

The bubbles are still sticking to him and he brushes them off absently. This time when Theo’s eyes drop, he turns and flees the room. Liam stares after him, feeling annoyed. If he’s just emptied the bath only for Theo to leave his house, he’s going to be pissed.

Liam gets out of the bath and dries off, wrapping his towel around his waist. He looks in the mirror, and his mask has dried enough for him to peel it off. He does so, finding it strangely satisfying. There’s just something about peeling black goop off your face that leaves you feeling better than you did before. He rubs a bit of moisturiser into his skin afterwards and washes his hands.

When he wanders into his room, Theo is lying face up on his bed, staring stonily up at the ceiling. Liam can’t quite differentiate the tangle of emotions that fill the air, so he leaves him be, grabbing a pair of sweats from his closet and pulling them on. He dumps the towel in his washbasket and falls into the chair at his desk, turning it so that he can regard Theo.

“Shower’s free now,” he points out. Theo startles, like he almost hadn’t noticed him walk in. “If you still want it.”

“Oh,” Theo says, turning his head to look at him. He slowly pushes himself up, reluctance evident in every sluggish movement. Liam’s probably staring at him like he’s an alien, but he just cannot get a handle on what is going on with him.

“There’s towels in the cupboard next to the bathroom,” he says to Theo’s retreating back. Theo nods and Liam feels a bit foolish. Theo probably already knows that. He’s used Liam’s shower quite a few times in the past few months.

He listens while he spins back and forth on his chair. The cupboard opens and closes. The bathroom door screeches on its hinges and shuts with a quiet thud. There’s some rustling and then the whine of the pipes heating up as water starts to rush from the showerhead. 

The curtain is pulled across and Liam stands. He’d smelled Theo, and there was no way he was going to let him put those clothes back on. He grabs a spare pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and lets himself into the bathroom.

Theo yelps his name but he ignores him and the shadowed body behind the curtain, exchanging the soft, clean clothes held in his arms for the dirty ones draped over the towel rack. He’s gone again before Theo can protest further, closing the door firmly behind him. 

He deposits the clothes in the laundry, fishing Theo’s keys from the pocket of his hoodie. He’s sure to have other things that need washing, and Liam’s mother is always adamant that he runs a full load where possible. She’s a real stickler for water conservation, which is another reason why he keeps the baths to when no one else is home. It means he can refill the bath without the guilt trip and lecture.

Liam pulls on a shirt first. Mrs Jenkins over the road would die of a heart attack if she caught sight of him shirtless, and if she didn’t, she’d be on the phone to the police complaining about his full frontal nudity. He wishes he was joking, but she’d done it before when Liam was put to work mowing the front lawn the previous summer.

Sure enough, there’s a duffel bag in the back seat of Theo’s truck and he wrinkles his nose up at the smell. Pre-hell Theo would never have been caught dead looking and smelling anything other than immaculate. It’s a sobering thought. 

He slings it over his shoulder and then for good measure grabs the blanket and pillow as well. They all look like they could do with a decent wash.

Carrying his haul back to the laundry, Liam methodically sorts the clothes into two piles, lights and darks. He squirms a little as he touches a black pair of briefs, dropping them like a hot coal. Once the first load is on, he retreats to the kitchen.

The shower is still running when he walks past but Liam leaves it closed this time. Instead, his mind is already moving on to the next thing.

Theo is thin. Tired. Pale. If anyone needs a bit of self care, it’s him.

Coffee and hot chocolates is something of a family ritual with the Geyer-Dunbars. His mother had bought a proper coffee machine ten years ago, and they look after it like it’s a religious idol. It’s always clean, the beans kept full and fresh, the filter changed every day, the works. Liam doesn’t always have time in the morning for a proper meal, but he always makes time for a hot drink.

He moves like a professional barista, pouring the milk in the jug and steaming it, grabbing two mugs with his other hand while he watches the temperature gauge like a hawk. 

Liam pulls out the big guns. The decadent hot chocolate, his favourite, is an expensive brand that he saves for when he really needs it. It’s near the back of the cupboard and he reaches on his tippy toes to pull it down, flipping the lid open and measuring it out into the mugs.

The milk finishes heating up and he grabs out a long spoon, gently pouring into one mug and then the other, stirring it through the chocolate powder until the rich and sweet scent of chocolate spirals towards him and both mugs are full. He doesn’t bother with a fancy pattern. They’ll probably destroy them with whipped cream and caramel sauce anyway.

A glance through the fridge makes him smile. His mum makes the best brownies, and there’s a plastic container full of them on the bottom shelf. He pulls a few out and sets them on a plate, gathering the drinks on his way past to the lounge room, setting it all down on the coffee table. 

He goes back for the bottle of whipped cream and caramel sauce, bringing them into the lounge room.

All he needs now is a Theo.

As if the thought summons him, Theo pokes his head around the door, scowling lightly. He’s wrapped up in the towel, Liam’s clothes bundled in his arms.

“Where are my clothes?” He asks with a wary look.

Liam frowns at him. He can practically see Theo’s ribs. He’s let this go on far too long.

“In the washing machine,” he says matter-of-factly. “They reeked. Now hurry up and get dressed. Pretty sure the Harry Potter marathon is starting in like five minutes.”

Theo looks at him, brow furrowed. Liam steadily looks back, holding his gaze firmly until Theo scowls and lowers his eyes first. He turns and retreats, only coming back when he’s wearing his borrowed clothes. Liam nudges one of the mugs towards him, already holding his own. He’s attacked it liberally with the whipped cream and more caramel sauce than technically required, but he justifies this by having been kicked out of his bath a good hour, if not two, before he was ready to leave it.

“It’s not gonna bite you,” he points out when Theo just glares down at the mug like it’s grieviously offended him.

“I don’t understand you,” Theo snaps.

Liam blinks. He opens his mouth and then closes it. This feels like one of those moments Mason often tells him about, when he needs to shut his mouth and open his ears. So he does so, leaning back against the cushions and waiting for Theo to gather his thoughts about what exactly it was about Liam’s behaviour that confused him.

“Why would you let me in your house, and give me your clothes, and make me a hot chocolate?” He continues, wielding his mug to punctuate every point. Liam watches the way it sloshes warily. He won’t say anything, but also he’ll be annoyed if Theo wastes his best and chocolatiest hot chocolate.

“You know who I am, you know what I’ve done.” Theo continues to rage on, completely unaware of the crime against hot chocolate he is so close to committing. “Why the hell-” He stops and flinches before continuing, voice getting a little quieter, a little raspier. “Why would you trust me?”

At this point he stops and looks at Liam, demanding an answer to whatever he’d been blathering about. Something about bad deeds and trust, blah blah blah. Liam can see the dribbles of liquid sliding down the side of the mug, and he can be silent no longer.

“Are you going to drink that?” Liam asks him, pointedly staring at the hot drink. Too much has already been wasted, and he’s damned if he’ll let this travesty continue.

Theo blinks at him, incredulity making his eyes widen. “What?”

“I’m serious, Theo, you’ve already spilled some of it. Do you know how expensive that stuff is? I’m lucky if I’m allowed to get one jar every few months.”

Theo looks down at his hot chocolate and then abruptly bursts out laughing. Liam stares at him, offended. How dare Theo not take him seriously.

“Hey, I mean it,” he scowls. “That’s my chocolate rations you’re flicking around like it’s nothing. If you don’t want it, give it here.”

The other boy just continues to laugh, holding his side with one arm. Liam takes his eyes off the mug to glare at Theo. Why was he being so nice to this asshole again?

“Yeah, laugh it up,” he mutters, leaning back into the couch and having a deep swallow of his own drink, letting the bittersweet flavour rest on his tongue. He’s already attacked all of the whipped cream and caramel and he eyes the jars resting on the coffee table, contemplating a little more. For the stress.

Theo eventually stops laughing, brushing tears from his eyes and finally looking back at Liam.

“You really don’t care, do you?” He asks.

“I do,” Liam snaps.

“No,” Theo dismisses him with a wave. “Not about the drink. About me, my past, any of it.”

“Oh,” Liam blinks. “Yeah no, not really.”

Theo studies him a bit longer, the amusement slipping into something more serious, more vulnerable. 

“Why not?”

Liam shrugs. “That’s not who you are anymore.”

Theo frowns. “That’s it? Just like that, you forgive me? I killed Scott.”

“Forgive?” Liam muses. “No, and I haven’t forgotten about it either. But the Theo who did those things went to hell. The Theo that came back was a different person. Also, you know, Scott didn’t stay dead, so that makes it easier.”

“Josh and Tracy are,” Theo points out.

Liam nods. “Yeah, but I don’t think you need me to beat you up over that. Seems like you’re doing a pretty good job of that yourself.”

Theo concedes the point with a sigh. He finally sips at his drink and Liam watches him, appeased by the way Theo’s eyes drift close and he gives a happy little hum. 

“It’s good,” Theo says.

“I know.”

Theo just rolls his eyes. Liam moves closer to the coffee table, reloading his drink with sugar. The tension bleeds out of the air and Liam flicks the TV on. They’ve missed the first ten minutes of the movie, but he’s pretty sure he can catch Theo up quickly.

They both settle in, and if Theo moves to sit next to him, well, it’s just so he can use the whipped cream bottle too. He stays there for the convenient access of course. There’s only one blanket too, so it makes sense for them to share it, and their body heat.

Liam tries not to think too hard about the fact that he’s cuddling with Theo Raeken under a blanket watching movies and drinking hot chocolate, or the way Theo smells a lot like him right now, or the fact that he really likes that.

Harry’s about to get the stone from the mirror, and that’s way more important.


End file.
